Kurdistan: Women protest against polygamy in Kurdistan

Source: 
VOI via AWID
Nearly 200 women from 40 women’s organizations staged a demonstration in front of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) building in Erbil calling to amend a Personal Status Law article allowing polygamy.
“We demand equality between men and women in the Personal Status Law, on which the parliamentary legal committee is currently working,” one of the organizers of the demonstration, Sayran Abdullah, told VOI.
“We are particularly against men’s polygamy. Law no. 62 of the year 2001 banned polygamy with the exception of certain cases,” Sayran, who is also a member of Kurdistan’s Women Union, added.

Kurdistan Region Parliament held a session Monday to discuss the Personal Status Code. At the beginning of the session, Speaker of the Kurdistan Region Parliament, Adnan Mufti, presented the law for voting, and by the majority of the voters they decided to discuss the draft law.

The committees of Human rights, endowment, parliament legal committee, and women supporting committee read their reports, and the lawmakers expressed their views about the article related to polygamy.

During the session the parliament by the majority vote decided that the Conditional polygamy to remain in the draft law. It is expected that on Tuesday, Kurdistan Region Parliament to continue discussing other articles of the draft law.

2 December 2008

Source: VOI via AWID